But we can't Selllllll fanfic

[valarltd]

This has been brewing for a while.

Why can't we sell fanfiction?
When there are books like Scarlett and The Wind Done Gone.
When My Jim debuts to critical acclaim.
When The Open Window totally takes Wendy Darling out of character and sells for $14.95.
When The Red Tent is being read by women's book groups all over country.
When the X-Wing and Buffy and ST books go on and on and endlessly on.

What makes THEIR fanfiction so superior to ours?
The fact it's packaged as literature?
The fact it's approved by the owners?

Help me out here, because I'm confused, and getting crankier by the day.

Comments

[idadebeautreux.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about stuff like that... is it just that the people who own the rights say, "It's ok to have a kajillion people write Star Trek books" but other creators/authors don't? It seems like a big fuzzy gray area.